The hacker group Anonymous took credit for the attack,
saying it was retaliation for the online payment company
suspending the account of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website.

“Citing violations of the PayPal terms of service, and in
response to WikiLeaks’ release of the classified cables, PayPal
suspended WikiLeaks’ accounts such that WikiLeaks could no
longer receive donations via PayPal,” U.S. Attorney Melinda
Haag in San Francisco said yesterday in a statement.
“WikiLeaks’ website declared that PayPal’s action ‘tried to
economically strangle WikiLeaks.’”

Ten of the defendants pleaded guilty Dec. 5 in federal
court in San Jose, California, to one count of conspiracy and
one count of damaging a protected computer, while the remaining
three pleaded guilty to one count each related to the attack,
according to the statement.

The charges stem from “denial of service attacks” that
saturate targeted computers with communication requests so
service is denied to legitimate users. Anonymous was described
by prosecutors as an online collective of individuals associated
with collaborative hacking attacks motivated by political and
social goals.

Michael Whelan, a lawyer for one of the defendants,
Christopher Cooper, declined to comment on the plea.

U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen is scheduled to
sentence the defendants starting in November, according to the
statement.

EBay, based in San Jose, is the world’s largest online
marketplace.

The case is U.S. v. Cooper, 11-00471, U.S. District Court,
Northern District of California (San Jose).